


Patience Janson-Summers and the Unspecified Empire of Crime

by LectorEl



Series: Patience Verse [5]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Patience Janson-Summers, Ra's is scheming, as usual, the Damian Clone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-16
Updated: 2013-01-16
Packaged: 2017-11-25 18:38:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/641807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LectorEl/pseuds/LectorEl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’d only gotten a B- in her Law and Government class, but she thought she would have picked up on it being legal to keep professional killers on payroll. That seemed like the sort of loophole that would have been mentioned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Patience Janson-Summers and the Unspecified Empire of Crime

It took a while for it to actually sink in that her parents were gone. Not just for a night, or a weekend, but for an indefinite period of time.

Leaving her with her previously unknown godfather. Which, it was not as weird as it should be that mom and dad had asked a guy who actually wore a cloak, cape, whatever, on a daily basis to take the job. Her parents were friendly with almost everybody _(barring certain neighbors, the school board, and a handful of others Mom had taken a personal objection to)_ but the people they were close to were always slightly weird.

Patience hadn’t figured out what it was exactly that Ra’s did for a living. But she was pretty sure that whatever it was, it was wildly illegal. Mom had used to work for him as an _assassin_ , he’d said. She still couldn’t wrap her head around that one. Assassins were things out of bad action flicks and stories of corporate espionage, not Texas suburbs. She’d only gotten a B- in her Law and Government class, but she thought she would have picked up on it being legal to keep professional killers on payroll. That seemed like the sort of loophole that would have been mentioned.

Ra’s seemed- well, not nice, because there was something wrong with describing a crime lord, even one as polite as Ra’s, as nice. But not cruel. Reliable, if totally out of his depth with handling her. She got the feeling he really wasn’t familiar with teenagers.

Patience wanted to drop him in the middle of an American high school, just to see what would happen.

They’d settled into a somewhat workable schedule. Patience did the schoolwork that someone picked up from her high school in the morning, while Ra’s ran his unspecified empire of crime. They had lunch together, most days, and Patience used the time to try and trick him into revealing more information about her parents. She rarely succeeded, but she was getting better at it. Ra’s spent a lot of time doing his ‘laughing at her silently’ thing.

In the afternoon, she’d go running, or convince one of the men or women that Ra’s kept around to teach her something. Patience privately thought of them as minions, but she kept that to herself. No need to be rude.

They ate dinner together more erratically, but still at least once or twice a week. Saturdays and Sundays, she’d taken to spending in Ra’s’ enormous office, reading, or frowning over one of her dad’s C++ manuals.

It was a little lonely, sometimes, but she didn’t want to complain. The way-too-big-to-be-a-cabin where Ra’s lived _(Or was living while Patience was with him, because if Patience was running an unspecified empire of crime, she wouldn’t bring random teenage girls into her main base.)_ was up in the mountains, far enough away from civilization that traveling to the nearest town was not really an option. And even though it was a home, it was also where Ra’s was working, which would make having random un-vetted teenagers wandering around a bad idea.

She and dad used to play ‘When I’m an Evil Emperor,’ which was proving so helpful in understanding Ra’s.

Unless Ra’s could conjure a friend for her out of the ether, there wasn’t much he’d be able to do about the shortage of people her own age. Or, she’d thought that, at least.

“Is there a rea-”

Patience looked up at the teenaged boy who’d just entered the office. “Ra’s got called away about an hour ago. Something to do with-” She paused and squinted at the note Ra’s had left her on his desk, “-Sudan, I think. Or Jordan. One of the two.”

“Probably Jordan,” the boy said, rapidly overcoming his startled reaction. “I don’t think we have anything going on in Sudan. Who are you?”

Patience looked him over. She pretty sure the minions wouldn’t have let him in if he was a possible threat to her. The minions liked her. He was obviously muscular-the sort that came from work, not working out, wore slightly old-fashioned clothing, and had his hair cropped short. Totally involved in Ra’s unspecified empire of crime.

Which was a shame, since he was kind of cute.

“I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you that,” Patience said, turning her notebook upside down so he couldn’t see her name on the right-hand corner. “Ra’s should be back in another hour, according to his note. Want to wait?”

And Patience took after mom more than she thought, because seeing how confused she’d made him was _really funny_.

“Sure,” he said at last, sitting down in one of the visitor’s chairs with a faintly audible thud, “Why not?”

Patience smiled distractedly, C++ manual already open in her lap. The section on dynamic memory allocation wasn’t making sense. There must have been something she missed in the earlier sections.

The quiet swish of the door opening drew Patience out of her irritated scrutiny of her notes sometime later.

“Hey. Welcome back,” Patience said, smiling at Ra’s. “You’ve got a visitor.”

“I can see that,” Ra’s said, and he was totally laughing. “I thought you were arriving later tonight, Daniel.”

The boy-Daniel-made a non-committal sound, standing to greet Ra’s. “Mother had some unexpected business with-well, you know, so she sent me on ahead.”

“The usual problem, I suppose?”  

Daniel nodded. “I think she’s still hoping it can be repaired. Not to change the subject, Grandfather, but who is that?” He gestured towards Patience, and she could see Ra’s’ lips twitch. So Daniel and Ra’s were related. Good to know.

“You didn’t introduce yourself?” Ra’s asked, turning towards Patience. She shrugged.

“I didn’t think it was a good idea, considering,” her parents, the current situation, the universally known but unmentioned fact that Ra’s was obviously not on the straight and narrow, among other things. But if Ra’s didn’t see a problem with it…

She stood up too, and offered Daniel her hand. “Patience Janson-Summers. Your granddad is my godfather. Nice to meet you.”

“Daniel al Ghul,” Daniel said, the reaction obviously automatic. “Nice to meet you too. I’ve never heard of you before in my life.”

“I’d never heard of Ra’s before last month, so I think we’re equals.” Patience grinned at him, cheered by the prospect of company. “Want to trade stories, Danny?”


End file.
